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Ebay’s Paypal Shipping Is Raping You

I just sold an old video camera on ebay for $203. The buyer paid via paypal, and normally my next step is to go into paypal to print the shipping information.

This time instead of presenting me with the buyers shipping information, Paypal prompted me to try to their new UPS Shipping solution. Paypal said they had worked out a special deal for their users, so I decided to try it.

For my 5 lb, 10” x 10” x 8” box, Paypal told me it would cost $21.40. I paid it, thinking I would just verify how much it should cost at the shipping place down the street.

I printed out the UPS label from Paypal.com, taped it to the box, and took it to the drop off.

I asked the guy there how much this *would* of cost if I had shipped it through him.

His answer? $14.40!

I called my buddy who does a lot of UPS shipping and he let me know of UPS shipping calculator of UPS.com that will tell you how much it *should* cost to ship. This way, he told me, you can find the exact amount you should pay if you went straight to a UPS center with no middle men.

So I found my UPS account (I have a UPS account?) and created a shipment.

After all my configuring, UPS said it should cost $12.62!

To compare apples to appeles, I was able to save $2.70 because Paypal automatically declared $203 of the package, which wasn’t necessary when you are insured for $200 for free on every shipment.

But at least UPS tells me the breakdown of the payment, so I can intellegently figure it out.

But even still, the fact that paypal is raping me almost $7 on a $15 shipment makes me want to puke.